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LECTURES ON TANNING 



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TWO LECTURES 



TANNING, 



DELIVERED BEFOliE 



THE ECLECTIC FRATERNITY, 



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7iu i: Hrii FEBRUARY, 1838. 



liY THE HON. GJDEON LEE. 



NEW-YORK: 



rUULISlIED BV THEECLECTU; rilATEUNITV. 

1838. 









1 



..*« 



To THK 

Hon. GIDEON LEE: 

Dear Sir — 

At a regular meeting of the Eclectic Frater- 
nity, held at their Rooms, on Monday evening, Feb. 19, the following resolu- 
tion was unanimously adopted. 

Resolved, " That a committee of three be appointed to wait upon tlie 
Hon. Gideon Lee, and request a copy of two Lectures, delivered by him> 
before the members and friends of this society, on the subject of Tanning, and 
that the said committee be, and are hereby authorized, to have the same pub- 
lished, should our request be granted." 

In compliance with the above resolution, the undersigned committee 
respectfully solicit a copy of the Lectures referred to, believing you could in no 
way so effectually render a service to that trade in whose success you have so 
repeatedly manifested interest, as by complying with this request. 
The committee have the honor to be, 

Your obliged servants, 

J. S. SCHULTZS, ^ 

ED WIN SMITH, > Committee. 

NiCH'S CARROLL, ) 
New -York, Feb 21, 1838. 



New- York, Feb. 26, 1S38. 
Gkntiemkn — 

I have received your letter of the 21st inst. communicating the 
request of the Eclectic Fraternity, for a copy of two Lectures, delivered by me 
before that association, on the subject of Tanning ; and you have been pleased 
to express the opinion, that my compUance may render essential service to the 
trade in general : although I cannot flatter myself that any great good can be 
derived from those Lectures, I do cheerfully comply with your request, in the 
hope and the belief that the publication may induce others more competent, to 
examine, correct, and improve, my very imperfect efforts. 
Very res()ectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 

GIDEON LEE. 
To Messrs. 

J. S. Schultzs, i 

Edwin Smith, > Committee. 

Nich's Carroll, S 



LECTURE I . 



Mr. President and Gentlemen : 

When this society did me the courtesy to 
request me to give a lecture on the manufacture 
of leather, I accepted the invitation most wil- 
lingly ; not because 1 have the least pretension to 
the requisite qualifications of a public lecturer, or 
any superior skill or science, but, with a view to 
get together and embody the general knowledge 
of the whole trade ; and, because of the great 
extent and usefulness of this branch of our Ame- 
rican manufactures; and finally, because, during 
the forty years in which I have made it my prin- 
cipal business, my habits, thoughts, actions, pas- 
sions, have so constantly dwelt upon it ; and my 
pride, character, and pecuniary interests, have 
been so involved, so inseparably blended with its 
prosperity ; I do confess I love to talk about it : 
and being now about to retire from the trade, I 
am pleased with the opportunity to communicate 
to my juniors, remaining in it, whatever little 



knowledge my long practice may have enabled 
me to pick up. I do not know that I can say any 
thing new. 

I am aware that the importance of the subject 
should havv) placed it in abler hands than mine ; 
for beside my non-pretensions to science and 
literature, I have scarcely leisure, at this time, to 
put into form and order even the limited know- 
ledge I do possess, still less to study scientific or 
learned terms and phrases ; I must, therefore, 
merely endeavor to make my discourse intelligible, 
in my own homely style and manner. 

It will doubtless surprise my young friends 
here, to be informed, that while books and pamph- 
lets on other branches of American industry, 
which I deem greatly inferior to this, both in point 
of magnitude and usefulness, have been written 
and published, 1 have not been able to find any 
American work in print, on the science or art of 
tanning, from which to derive the information and 

' "■ 1 could have wished. I lately had a small 
aia - 

pamphlet on tuC ^^^J^^t, written by a gentleman 
in Maryland, which I rememo6r tC ]^ave approved, 
but have mislaid it ; and there may be other 
works extant, but 1 have not met with them. In 
this paucity of American authors, I have availed 
myselt freely of European works ; but the great 



body of this lecture is derived from practicfil 
American tanners. We are the more surprised at 
this deficiency of recorded science, when we trace 
out the innumerable and indispensably important 
uses of leather in this country. 

In point of necessity, few manufactures surpass 
it. Leather, indeed, seems to enter into the uses 
of every other trade, every family, every person ; 
nor does it stop at the useful ; a large portion of 
our ornamental furniture, equipage and dress, ad- 
mit and require this commodity, in some one of 
its numerous forms. We see it the chief orna- 
ment of the splendid volume, as well as the pre- 
servative cover, of the plain one ; as well the 
gilded military cap and belt, as the rough and 
homely girdle of the coal-heaver's frock ; in the 
President's gala-day and inaugural coach, and in 
the drayman's cart-harness ; on the ploughman's 
team, and in the moving trains of the victors and 
the vanquished of the field of Waterloo ; on our 
fire-engines ; in our libraries, parlors, halls, sta- 
bles, ships, and factories ; witness the indispensa- 
ble leather bands, communicating, from the great 
central power- wheel, its mobility to the thousand 
distant points of the ramified machinery. Which- 
ever way we look, or move, we cannot fail to see 
this indispensable article in use. 



8 

It would reasonably be expected, that a manu- 
facture so necessary to ail mankind, so long in 
practice, so extensive in amount and value, should 
have been well understood in all its fundamental 
principles, for centuries past, as well scienliJicaUy 
as mechanically. The fact is not so ! 1 cannot 
discover that any tolerably correct notion of tlie 
philosophy of tanning existed, until within the last 
forty years. The whole process of converting 
raw hide into leather was supposed to be merely 
mechanical- Chymical affinity, and chymical 
combination were not known, and but rarely sus- 
pected, in the formation of leather, i he French 
chymists, about forty years ago, first discovered ; 
and the c^iglish and American chymists have 
since confirmed the fact — that the formation of 
leather is distinctly chymical. n is now believed 
to be the chymical union of two distinct princi" 
pies or elements ; the one being the long known 
animal gelatine, which constitutes the body and 
substance of all raw hides and skins ; the other, 
the more recently discovered vegetable substance, 
the identity of which was first ascertained and 
made 'known to the world by Deyeux, a French 
chymist, and by him named tannin. 

Seguin, a notable tanner, as well as chymist, of 
the same nation, by great experimental labor, 



9 

separated and defined it, and established the trutli 
of Deyeux's discovery. 

It is the chymical union, or combination of this 
tannin, with the gelatine, or glue of the hide, that 
forms the insoluble substance which we call lea- 
ther. 

The manufacture of leather has probably suf- 
fered more, from the want of this knowledge, (and 
is still suffering, for I find few tanners now willing 
to admit a chymical combination, in its full extent,) 
than from all other hindering causes put together. 
The still prevailing idea is, (at least, with a large 
portion of the tanners,) that the tannin merely fills 
up the open pores of the hide, as mechanically as 
the masoTi's mortar fills the interstices of a wall, or 
as the shoemakers threads or pegs fill the awl-holes. 

I may remark here, that when a hide is freed 
from the hair, flesh, and other extraneous append- 
ages, (which operation, as well as the labor of 
handling and finishing off", 1 need hardly say, are 
mechanical operations,) it is composed of un- 
mingled gelatine, and the whole may be reduced 
to glue. 

Many tanners have a mistaken notion that the 
glutin forms one portion, and the fibres another 
portion of the hide. The glue-makers, however, 
find the whole substance of the hide reducible to 



10 

glue, after the cleansing preparatory process i 
have already described, has been done. 

I have said, that the process of the formation 
of leather, from the moment the prepared hide or 
skin comes in contact with the ooze, (the solution 
of tannin,) until it is perfect leather, is a purely 
chymical operation. It is the creation of a new 
substance, by means of the chymical union of two 
pre-existing elementary substances. The chymi- 
cal affinity of these two elementary substances, 
when both are in a state of solution, or in a state 
of approximate solution ; and the suddenness of 
the union, when no obstacles intervene, almost 
surpass description. In confirmation of this pow- 
erful affinity, it is related of one of the French 
experimenters, while the dispute ran high as to 
the predominance of the mechanical or chymical 
powers in this manufacture, that having prepared 
a warm solution of glue in one vessel, and a solu- 
tion of tannin in another, and pouring the two 
into a third, he was thrown into ecstacies with the 
result, when the instant rising vapor carried to his 
olfactories the strong odor of leather. 

It is believed that the chymical proportions of 
these elementary constituents, (pure glutin and 
pure tannin,) in forming such union, would natu- 
rally be about forty-six of tannin to fifty-four of 



11 

gelatine, both being in a state of solution. It 
would seem to be a fair corollary then, that if un- 
equal quantities should be put together, equal 
quantities only would unite ; and the excess of 
either would remain a separate residuum : and if 
this theory be correct ; if nearly equal quantities 
be the ruling law of this chymical combination, it 
would seem another fair conclusion that each 
pound of perfectly dried hide should make nearly 
two pounds of leather; that is, it should incor- 
porate or combine with itself nearly an equal 
weight of tannin. The question very naturally 
arises then, why do we not make nearly two hun- 
dred pounds of leather from one hundred pounds 
of clean, dried, raw hide, instead of one hun- 
dred and thirty to one hundred and fifty pounds, 
as now made ; it being known by the glue- 
makers, and through them, by us, that all the appa-' 
rently difterent component parts of raw hide, (the 
hair, fiesh, &c. first cleaned away,) are in fact com- 
posed of pure glutin; and that the entire hide, when 
so cleaned, is reducable to glue ? I find some diffi- 
culty in making the proper answer to this question, 
but it seems to me to be this, viz : that the hide is 
not, and may not be, in the manufacture of leather, 
as in the manufacture of glue, reduced to a state of 
solution. The purpose, or object, allows no more 
thiin an approximate solution, a mere softening. 



12 

1 believe much of the original gelatine of all our 
hides and skins is never combined with the tannin, 
but is wasted, actually extinguished, or incapaci- 
tated, or perhaps both, in the process of the man- 
ufacture, and chiefly by the necessary tardiness 
of that process ; for I have not a doubt, that if it 
were possible to bring every particle of the hide, 
the moment it is prepared for the handler, into con- 
junction with the tannin, as the chymists are able 
to do with their solution of both, the result would 
give nearly two hundred pounds (probably one 
hundred and eighty) of leather from one hundred 
pounds of perfectly dried hide, when cleaned of all 
extraneous appendages. But this being impracti- 
cable, as we must retain the original organic form 
of the hide, in order to make leather of it, it be- 
comes our proper business to devise and adopt 
such saving modes of process as will waste the 
least, and save the greatest quantity of the gelatine 
substance of the hide. 

1 hardly know how to induce the continued at- 
tention of my audience on a subject so husky, so 
barren of entertainment, and withal, somewhat 
abstruse ; having no flowers of rhetoric, no orna- 
ments of elocution, no ruffles^ no primelloy nothing 
in fact to present you with, but the rough, unseemly 
material of our trade, mere taiinhi. glut'in, and lea- 
ther. 



13 

Will you proceed with me, then, gentlemen, in 
this work ? and let us make the most of it that our 
raw materials will possibly allow us to do ; for, be 
assured, the whole secret of the manufacturer's 
profits, now-a-days, lies in his savings, not in his 
makings. Let us then waste nothing that we can 
possibly save. It is an axiom with me that econo- 
my is better than hard work. 

I have expressed the opinion, that if we could 
bring the tannin into immediate contact with every 
part and particle of the prepared hide at once, in- 
terior and exterior, our gain in weight would be 
about eighty per cent. ; and that, in the necessary 
delay during the several months process, a portion 
of the softened hide, which is kept in a state of 
divorce from the object of its strong and natural 
affinity, utterly goes to waste, or loses its capacity 
ever to unite with the tannin ; or it imperceptibly 
becomes extinct. Some portion, however, and in 
some instances, a large proportion of this waste of 
gelatine occurs, in preparing the hide before it 
comes to the handler. I will notice this first. 

Gentlemen w ill remember, that saving is the order 
of the day ; and that each pound of glutin wasted, 
incapacitated, expunged, consumed, or otherwise 
lost, involves the loss, or prevents the gain of 
nearly an equal weight of tannin, which the glutin 
so lost would otherwise have combined. 



11 

I am sa.tistied that excessive soaking and soften- 
ing is the incipient waste, and will relate an in- 
stance : — When Hubbard & Lee tanned for Mr. 
Lorillard, in 1804, '05, they erected a new water- 
power softening-mill, and being totally inexpe- 
rienced and ignorant of its great power, and 
confiding too much in the obstinate hardness of the 
dry Laguira hides, they pushed the pounding of 
the tremendous iron shod beams upon the soft 
soaked hides to such a degree, upon several hun- 
dred of them, that in their opinion, then, and in my 
opinion, now, without inducing even incipient 
putrefaction ; but by the mere force of those tre- 
mendous hammers, too long continued, they actu- 
ally expunged a portion of the finer particles of the 
gelatine substance, which the softness of the water, 
in conjunction with the powerful action of the 
pressure of the milling, had reduced to a state of 
approximate solution. The workmen complained 
throughout the whole process of tanning, of those 
packs, of the " softness, limberness, and thinness 
of the sides." These bad characteristics might 
have arisen from other causes. We all know that 
the most fruitful source of erroneous conclusions, 
is, the attribution of certain known effects to the 
wrong causes ; possibly so in this case ; but I 
believe we then assigned the true cause. The 
leather weighed vei^y light — the loss was something 



15 

to the owner ; but the business was then very 
profitable, and that gentleman, (the owner,) whose 
liberal spirit would grieve less in suffering several 
questionable wrongs, than in doing a single posi- 
tive one, claimed no damage. 

But we must be equally careful to avoid the op- 
posite extreme ; for if our theory be correct, short, 
or deficient softening, is no less a cause of loss or 
waste than over-doing. The purest glue, and the 
purest tannin, have no more chymical affinity in a 
perfectly dry state, than the two most repellant 
substances in nature. It is only in a state of 
solution, or extreme softness approximating solu- 
tion, that this affinity has active existence. Every 
ounce of the hide, therefore, which fails of that 
degree of softness requisite for the incorporation 
or union of the tannin is no better than lost ; it 
can never form the necessary union with the 
tannin in order to make leather ; but it must re- 
main in a state, which, in technical phrase, we call 
** horn," or " starved hide." 

Some tanners have fancied that the penetrating, 
distending, opening power of the Hme, in the next 
stage of the process of preparation, may perform 
what the pure water and the softening mill have 
left undone. We know that lime is a powerful 
solvent, and in part it possibly may remedy the 



10 

defective M'ork of the water and the mill, but not 
fully. Every good tanner knows this if, then, 
ten pounds of hide in a hundred should fail of the 
requisite degree of softness, in the harder or 
thicker parts, the leather will fail proportionably, 
both in weight and quality. 

It is probably known to every body, that the 
object and the operation of the tanner's lime-pit 
is chiefly to remove the hair, and the greasy or 
oily par Jcles, from the hide. 

I may, for a moment, dwell on the sharp and 
searching power of quick-lime, in contact with 
humid substances. The operation of a strong 
solution of lime, on the soft and raw hide, is pow- 
erful — opening the pores, agitating the fibres, and 
separating the component corpuscles — loosening 
the hair, consuming the fatty particles, and dis- 
tending and swelling the whole body of the hide 
to the double of its natural thickness. It must be 
obvious to the most ordinary mind, that a men- 
struum so cogent should be used with great discre- 
tion ; and 1 think we have good reason to appre- 
hend, that a solvent which is known so rapidly to 
decompose dead animal bodies, has done great 
waste to our trade in consuming the soft gelatine 
of which the raw hide is composed. Every tan- 
ner knows that all high limed leather is loose, 



17 

porous, pervious lo water, weighs light, and wears 
out quickly ; but every tanner may not so readily 
perceive the critical process, by which the lime 
makes this havoc with our work. I ascribe the 
whole mischief in the process (and I think rightly) 
to the actual consumption of the soft and more 
delicate particles of the glutin. Let us suppose 
that ten pounds in the hundred are thus consumed ! 
Why, we have not only lost the ten pounds of 
hide, but we have failed to gain the five, or seven, 
or ten pounds of tannin, which should have com- 
bined with it ! It will be remembered, that I have 
assumed — not without authority — that the natural 
capacity for chymical union, of the two great ele- 
ments of leather, is nearly equal quantities, nearly 
pound for pound. No workman, therefore, who 
does not possess a sound mind, good discretion, 
and vigilant disposition, should be put in charge 
of this department of the tannery — the liming. 

I shall say but little of another process adopted 
by a great number of our large tanners within a 
few years, commonly called sweating ; which ac- 
complishes, by the process of that fermentation 
natural to all dead animal substances, all the bene- 
ficial purposes of the lime ; and, 1 am inclined to 
believe, with less waste of the raw material : but, 

as I have had no practical experience, and but 

3 



18 

little personal observation, in this newly adopted 
process, although it is no new invention, having 
been long in practice in Europe and in our middle 
states, and was doubtless the universal practice in 
the infancy of tanning, before the art of liming 
was known, I will merely and most briefly repeat 
the information given me by several practical tan- 
ners, in whose judgment I have much confidence. 
They say, that the sweating process, in compari- 
son with liming, " requires less labor, saves a 
portion of the hides, which, in the process of in- 
cipient putrefaction, would be suddenly destroyed 
by lime, causes a greater gain in the weight of the 
leather ; that it is more solid, finer texture, less 
pervious to water, and wears longer ; but requires 
longer time in the tanning, and is very difficult for 
the shoe maker to sew or stitch." 

The process called hating^ which immediately 
follows the liming, and which is intended to ex- 
tract or expunge it, (the lime,) and restore the 
texture of the hide, as nearly as may be, to what 
it was , before it entered the hming process, is, in 
its nature, that kind of fermentation which imme- 
diately precedes putrefaction, and the ultimate 
decomposition of all animal substances. 

This is perhaps the most delicate and critical 
operation in the whole range of the manufacture 



19 

of leather, and requires in the operator the nicest 
perception, the most improved judgment, and con- 
stant watchfulness, especially in variable weather. 
The great difficulty lies in determining that pre- 
cise point of time when all the lime is expunged, 
and when actual putrefaction is about to begin. 

The next process is the handlinf^. Here begins 
the actual tanning. The handler is a solution of 
tannin, which, being a powerful anti-putrescent, 
instantly arrests the fermentation generated in the 
bate. It also arrests putrefaction in case the hide 
has arrived at that stage of decay. I have good 
reason to believe, that in the hating process a large 
portion of the substantive body of the hide may be 
" run off," without destroying its organic structure. 
I presume every reflecting tanner will support me 
in the opinion, that the waste of glutin, in over- 
bating, is very great. I cannot too often repeat, 
that the apparent loss of glutin, in whatever stage, 
is but little more than half the real loss ultimately 
incurred by the owner ; but I have good reason to 
fear that a greater loss is incurred, by means 
of the tardy application of the tannin, from the first 
handler to the last layer, than by all other wasting 
causes together. 

I have noticed the results of numerous experi- 
ments of both slow and quick tanning ; and in all 
cases, (the preparation of the hide for the ooze 



20 

being equally well done,) have found the quick 
tanned specimens of a firmer and closer texture, 
more solid, less pervious, vastly greater weight, 
and far more durable in the wear, than the slow 
tanned specimens. 

As no very definite idea of time is conveyed by 
the words quick and slow, I desire to explain. 

By quick tannitig, I mean three to four months 
for light sole leather ; five to six months for mid- 
dling ; and seven to eight months for very heavy ; 
dating from the first handler. 

By slow tanning, I mean any considerable addi- 
tional time to the terms named. 

1 believe a much quicker process might be had, 
that would give as great or greater weight ; but it 
would render the leather too hard and harsh in its 
texture to be conveniently worked up by the shoe- 
maker. It will be observed, I am speaking of sole 
leather only, with which kind I am most intimate. 
The proper terms of time for tanning all other 
kinds, whose uses require more suppleness, pliabil- 
ity, and toughness, I leave to the judgment of those 
who have more experience about them. 

The ordinary increase of weight among the 
large tanners of this state, on the unsnlted dry 
hides, imported from Laguira, Angostura, Buenos 
Ayres, Rio Grande, and other parts of South 
America, (and such chiefly make up their stocks,) 



21 

is from forty to fifty pounds per cent. That is, 
each hundred pounds of dry hide makes one hun- 
dred and forty to one hundred and fifty pounds of 
dry sole leather ; and in cases of extraordinary 
exertion, through the excitement of emulation, 
premiums and the like, sixty to sixty-five per cent, 
gain has been made. Our theory of chymical 
union is strongly sustained by these data. What 
other substance could supply this increased weight 
but tannin? And how is this greater increase, in 
all cases of greater exertion, derive<!, but from the 
greater care used in staying the waste of the glutin 
in all the stages of manufacture ? This greater 
care is, the prevention of waste in the soak and 
mill., in the /me, in the hate, and in the ooze. 
I will remark here, though I may have done so 
before, that the wear and the v/orth of the leather, 
is always in the mathematical or approximate ratio 
of increased weight. I may also repeat here, that 
when all the glutin composing the hide is entirely 
combined (saturated) with the tannin ; when the 
union is perfectly formed ; not a single additional 
ounce can be gained from the strongest ooze, 
whatever time you continue the process. I have 
a most satisfactory experimental proof of the 
correctness of this conclusion. 

I consider active and long continued handling 
vastly important ; not only in the acquisition of 



22 

weight, but in point of firmness and durability. I 
would handle sole leather from eighty to one hun- 
dred and twenty days, according to the weight of 
the sides, and the subsequent laying away should 
be short and frequently repeated ; a few days only 
for Jeach layer, and in no case more than two- 
thirds the quantity of sides which is usually laid 
in each vat. 

I have ascribed the greatest loss or waste of 
glutin to the tardiness of the tanning stage of the 
manufacture. I am not able to satisfy my own mind 
precisely how or where it goes ; I am rather in- 
clined to think it does not separate and escape 
from the body of the hide, as in the process of 
softening and bating ; but for want of an imme- 
diate conjunction with the tannin, I believe it 
somehow perishes, and becomes extinct in its 
original position, or becomes incapacitated ever 
thereafter to form the necessary union with the 
tannin. If these conjectures be well founded then, 
much handling will prove the best remedy. 

I take it the glutin of the interior parts of the 
hide, chiefly suffers this disqualification ; for, the 
exterior being brought into immediate contact with 
the tannin, the two surfaces are always first tan- 
ned, as every body knovrs. This is seen by cut- 
ting into a side from month to month, during the 
process, in one part, say the butt. And it is some- 



23 

what curious to see the progress of the combina- 
tion extending from the two surfaces inward — the 
interior remaining colorless, soft, raw hide, for 
months after the two surfaces have become firm, 
well tanned leather ; the glutin of the two surfaces 
having arrested and combined all the tannin, be- 
fore it reaches the interior. 

Every tanner knows how slow the progress to- 
wards the close of the tanning process, compared 
with its rapidity in the begmning, and especially 
so, on long heavy layers. It is very clear, at first 
view, why it should be so ; indeed, we almost 
wonder how the interior of a thick hide gets tan- 
ned at all. The two surfaces have become leather, 
and therefore difficult for the ooze to pass through 
them into the interior ; and next, the pressure of 
its own weight, a ton or more, en masse, of sixty 
to a hundred sides of laid away leather, closes up 
all the interstices or passages of entrance for the 
ooze into the interior mass. And, again, the qui- 
escent condition of the whole contents of the vat, 
fluid and solid, is unfavorable to the passage of the 
ooze into the hide. 

If it is the great ruling law of all inanimate 
bodies, whether fluids or solids, to remain for ever 
at rest, unless some impulsive power puts them in 
motion — (Every person knows this of dry solids) — 



24 

If it is equally true of fluids, though not so readily 
visible to the mind which has chiefly witnessed 
moving waters, running streams, the ebbings and 
flowing of the tide, and the like ; it would doubt- 
less be an amusing experiment to such, to place a 
small open vessel of colored fluid into a larger 
vessel of common water, gently, without agitating 
either, and witness the utter inability of either to 
mingle with the other. Now, I understand, that 
the different portions of a body of fluid have little 
if any more disposition, tendency, or power, to 
mingle with other portions of the same body, 
though in juxta-position or contact, so long as 
such whole body of fluid remains perfectly quies- 
cent, than have the different portions of a solid 
body, wood or marble, to move, change place, and 
mingle with other portions of the same block of 
wood or marble. Thus it is with the ooze ; it has 
no power of self-mobility; and, as that portion 
which has already entered the hide, filling every 
pore, and filling the entire body of the hide to its 
utmost capacity to receive — probably about one to 
two gallons : also that portion of the ooze which 
falls into juxta-position, is presently exhausted of 
alHhe tannin it held ; the process of combination, 
or tanning, therefore, presently stops, and cannot 
resume until you plunge up the liquor, and bring 



25 

the unexhausted portions into actual contact with 
the glutin. 1 know it has been held by some, my- 
self among them, that the chymical affinity, or 
attraction of tannin and glutin, is so strong as to 
give them, when in a proper condition, a self- 
moving power towards each other. I now believe 
this cannot be. Again, the viscous or sticky nature 
of the tannin is a hindrance to its free entrance. 
And again, if we pump out or run off the exhaust- 
ed ooze from packs of laid away leather, and run 
on a new strong liquor, which some tanners have 
been in the practice of doing, it is but a partial 
remedy, as it can pass but tardily into the interior 
of the inert mass of sides ; and still more slowly 
into the interior untanned glutin of each side, 
through the already saturated, clogged, and almost 
impervious surfaces. Now, I think active hand- 
ling is the proper and only remedy for all these 
difficulties. First, in handling, we may recruit 
the ooze daily, or as often as exhausted. Second, 
the action of handling the sides daily, out of and 
into the vats, the change of positions, the bending 
and unbending, the folding and unfolding, the 
piling and unpilmg, so moves and changes the 
position of each portion of the side in relation to 
all portions of it, and so breaks up or loosens the 

component texture, and reopens the pores — and 

4 



26 

what is more effective still, the spent ooze is ex- 
punged or drained out from the hides by the press- 
ure of the weight of the pile when hauled up ; every 
particle of the tannin this spent ooze did contain, 
when it entered the porous hide having been com- 
bined with the hungry, absorbing glutin, remains 
now a dead impediment in the hide, to the entrance 
of the fresh ooze, forming a complete barrier — I 
may say dam, to the entrance of any fresh ooze ; 
this dead ooze, therefore, must be expunged some- 
how ; the new ooze, in a state of rest cannot re- 
move it.* I say. then, this operation of handling 
is the remedy ; and the only preventive of poor, 
soft, light starved leather ; and I strongly suspect 
that nearly all the progress made in laid away 
packs, is made in the first few days after the act 
of laying away. 

I consider the time of your twenty and thirty day 
layers, in a measure, as lost time ; and wc must 
not forget, that in every day's delay, the softened, 

* It has been supposed, that even the atmosphere, which takes 
the place of the expunged fluid, in the hide, tbrms a barrier, in some 
degree, to tlie entrance cf the new ooze; and the principle oi' the 
the vacuina or exhausted receiver has been applied to the tan-vat 
as a remedy. The morocco-dressers have resorted to the principle 
of pressure on their skins, while in the process of tanning, with 
great effect, in expunging both air and spent ooze ; but my infor- 
mation on this subject, and particularly the principle of the exhaust- 
ed receiver, is too limited to express any opinion about its practica- 
ble application on a large scale. 



27 

prepared, hungry glutin, is irrecoverably perishing 
or disquahfying, for lack of its proper sustaining 
aliment. The only objection I have heard to this 
system of continued, persevering handling, is the 
cost of the labor ; and I freely admit that the labor 
of handling up a stock of ten thousand sides, for 
one hundred and twenty days in succession, in a 
country like ours, where the cost of labor is some 
two or three fold greater than that of Europe, and 
tenfold greater than the labor of Asia, is a serious 
objection, but I cannot but hope it will be met and 
overcome. The labor-saving machinery already 
in use in our large tanneries, by the best computa- 
tion I am able to make, has lessened our actual 
manual labor more than thirty per cent, compared 
with that of forty years ago, or compared with the 
manual labor bestowed in the European tanneries at 
the present time ; and as our tannin material costs 
so much less than that of the tanners of Europe, 
we have nothing to fear from competition in that 
quarter, even should we add one-fourth to the la- 
bor we now bestow on each stock. 

To save this labor of handling, one of the pro- 
jects of recent origin, suspends the sides in large 
deep vats ; each side attached by hooks to a re- 
volving wheel, quite enveloped in the ooze, in such 
a manner, that with each revolution, every side is 



28 

freely moved, but without being raised out of the 
liquor. I think this mode is defective. I deem 
the daily drainage or expimction of the exhausted 
ooze indispensable ; and this cannot be efficiently 
done, without raising the sides out of the liquor, 
and piling, or otherwise pressing them. I hope 
the inventor will be able yet to remedy this ob- 
vious imperfection ; or that some other plan of 
handling, by means of machinery, will be discov- 
ered, to obviate this defect. 

I have often cautioned our tanners against inju- 
dicious and ill-timed skiving. It may not be neces- 
sary now, as I understand that this part of the 
work is greatly reformed, but it can do no harm to 
repeat the caution. 

Injudicious, or ill-timed skiving, has done much 
mischief formerly. If performed in an early stage 
of the tanning, and skived deep, the leather never 
can be made plump, thick, or heavy. The lime, 
or the bate, or the ooze, or perhaps all three in 
their turns, so act upon the raw, skived surface, as 
to harden or crisp it. Early skived leather never 
swells', and alwaj^s weighs light ; and besides this 
ill timed skiving, nine tanners in ten skive too 
deep ; and worst of all, deeper in one place than 
another, on the same side. I understand there is, 
of UK^dern invention, a jagged kind of hackle 



29 

knife, for breaking up that impervious skin or 
texture wliich overspreads the whole inner surface 
of the hide, and which seems to be formed of the 
infinitely ramified termini of the diagonal fibres. 
1 would therefore advise to discontinue altogether 
the use of the sharp edged knife, and use only this 
new invention. 

The finishing operation, to fit the sole leather 
for market, and for use, is the rolling. This is 
done, in our large tanneries, by means of a solid 
metallic cylinder, passing over the grain surface, 
moved rotarily by hydraulic power, and with such 
weight and force as to give the leather a degree of 
solidity incomparably superior to any method ever 
known, and which greatly enhances its intrinsic 
value. This operation, as well as several others 
in our trade, requires a good genius to perform it 
well. The difficulty lies chiefly in tempering the 
leather judiciously. If too damp, or too dry, the 
great purpose of rolling fails, and few minds are 
able to determine that proper temperament. The 
difficulty is very similar to those of the softening, 
liming, and bating. I think it is the great meta- 
physician Locke, who says, that of the whole range 
of human knowledge, that of the essential innate 
qualities of substances, is most dificult to attain. 
Number^ figure, color, dimension, iSfc, <Scc, is readily 



30 

discerned by the ordinary mind, but the component 
texture of substances is hardly ascertained or compre- 
hended by the most extraordinary minds. The science 
of tanning, therefore, which not only deals in 
natural substances, but whose chief purpose is to 
make a new one out of those, is infinitely more 
difficult for the operator than the performance of 
a merely mechanical trade.* 



* The knowledge of these truths, on the part of the large tanners 
of this state, probably led them, more than any other cause, years 
ago, to exclude ardent spirits totally from their factories, and from 
their stores. They learned, ttom practical observsition, what Locke 
discerned from philosophy, that the keenest perceptions, the most 
vigorous mind, and the soundest judgment, were absolutely requi- 
site to judge of and determine the constantly varying " qualities of 
the substances" on which their labor was performed ; and that even 
moderate drinking disquali^ed the mind for the nicer portions of the 
work. 



LECTURE II. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen ; 



It will be remembered by those who were 
present at my former lecture, that I spoke of the 
importance of this branch of our national manu- 
facture, and touching slightly on the properties of 
tan7iin, passed over it, and dwelt chiefly on the 
work and actual process of tanning. 

I propose this evening to resume my dissertation 
on the tanfiing material, which is so abundant in 
the forests of our country, but which forms a large 
Item of the cost of leather in all countries ; and if 
time will permit, give some comparative statistical 
views, embracing some commercial and financial 
data connected with the general subject. 

I am aware, that statistical data alone, however 
correct, can perform nothing — the work, of the 
tannery must be done by the combined action of 
machine power and manual labor. I am aware 
too, that all paper calculations are liable to error. 
At the same time, we should not repudiate statis- 
tics ; I think they may be made greatly beneficial 



:32 

to the manufacturer ; not as exclusive guides — not 
as his master ; but as auxiliary aids, in conjunc- 
tion with his own common sense and practical 
experience. 

I stated, on the occasion before named, that 
most sorts of vegetable productions contained 
tannin, but in very unequal quantities, and cited 
the ascertained differences in several species of 
barks, leaves, &c. I may this evening find it 
necessary to repeat something of my former dis- 
course, as I have not given that attention to order 
or method which I ought to have done. 

I am not able, nor is it to my present purpose, 
to give a learned dissertation on the various medi- 
cal powers and properties which some medical 
men have ascribed to tannin. Most chymists 
agree that it is a distinct principle or essence, and 
its identity as distinctly marked as that of gold, 
or gelatine, or farina, or saccharine matter. One 
of the inseparable marks of its identity is astrin- 
gency, and yet astringency does not always indi- 
cate the presence of tannin ; many substances 
being Found powerfully astringent, without a par- 
ticle of tannin. It is found in most or all vegeta- 
ble productions, and for the reason before named 
you will allow me to trace it at some length. 
Several chymists have nearly agreed with each 



3;i 

other in the following experiments and results in 
extracting tannin, viz : 

From Nut-galls, about 26 per cent, pure tannin. 
" Souchong tea, "11 " " 



Green " 




9- 

"-'10 


Sumach leaves 




18 


Willow bark, 




•>5 
"•lO 


Hemlock " 




11 


Oak 




61 


Chestnut '■ 




5 


Elm 




3 



It should be remarked here, that the quantity of 
tannin in the different specimens of the same 
species of plant or tree is found to vary greatly in 
different climates and soils. 

The drug called catechu or terra japonica, yields 
about fifty-four and a half per cent, of tannin ; but 
I understand this drug has already been concen- 
trated from an Indian wood, which, in its crude 
state, may perhaps not yield half so much. Other 
chemists fancy they have discovered tannin in nu- 
merous carbonaceous substances, in fossil coal, in 
charcoal, in peat, in oil, and in other animal sub- 
stances. A patent was taken out about thirty 
years ago in England, for tanning with minerals, 
but never having been used, or now being disused, 
it very obviously was one of those unreal discove- 



34 

ries wherein the imagination misled the judgment, 
or, perhaps, wherein cupidity, or desire of gain, 
misled the integrity of the patentee. Perhaps we 
should not discourage further experiments for the 
discovery of tannin in other substances, but con- 
sidering that the cost of tanner's bark, in England, 
has been from six to sixteen pounds sterling per 
ton, for many years, and that all experiments to 
substitute minerals, and other fossils, have failed, 
in that '* country of economy, calculation and 
thrift," I think we can hardly hope ever to find 
tannin out of the vegetable kingdom. I think, too, 
the barks and leaves now in general use, furnish 
the greatest quantity of tannin for the least cost of 
labor or money, of any that will be found here- 
after. 

That indefatigable and most skilful chymist, 
Professor Silliman, whose mind seems bent on 
" leaving the world better than he found it," some 
years ago experimented largely on chestnut wood 
in reference to the tannin it might contain. I have 
not the details of his experiments ; I have had, 
however, several specimens (small slips) of the 
leather he tanned, and have no doubt the tannin 
from that wood was as good as that from the barks 
or leaves in general use ; but I am informed by 
several tanners who 1iave since used the chestnut 



35 



wood, (some of them on a large scale,) that they 
found it more costly than the hemlock or oak 
bark. I have no doubt the wood of all trees con- 
tarns a slight degree of tannin, whose bark yields 
It, but in smaller quantities, and only in the exte- 
rior grains in contact with or near the bark. 

As respects the essence of tannin, I am not able 
to perceive any variety. Pure tannin must be the 
same, whether extracted from the oak, the cate- 
chu, the hemlock, the elm, or other vegetable sub- 
stances ; but it is very clear, that other extractive 
matters, existing in the several vegetable sub- 
stances, aside from, or combined with the tannin, 
and differing materially in different woods and 
plants, may enter into the hide with the tannin, and 
deteriorate as well the quality as the color of the 
leather. Hence, perhaps, we see hemlock tanned 
leather more hard, and the texture more rio-id • 
and oak tanned leather more supple and elastic ; 
these different qualities in the leather arising from 
the discrepant, perhaps, the opposite nature of the 
extractive matters in the two kinds of bark, while 
the tannin is precisely the same in both. 

It may not be universally known, that the ross 
of bark, which was formerly separated and burn- 
ed, or cast away as worthless, is now known to 
contain a moderate quantity of tannin— especially 
the ross of the hemlock. 



36 

Tiie barks used in this country, are the oak, the 
hemlock, the bay, the ash, the birch, beach, &c. 
The oak and hemlock are chiefly used, being more 
easily obtained, and containing more tannin than 
either of the other kinds, the bay perhaps except- 
ed. That the barks of warm climates should 
aftbrd more tannin than those of cold, accords so 
well with the general laws of nature, in the pro- 
duction of vegetable essences, the fact need hardly 
be mentioned. I am not able to give the precise 
difterences of what we commonly call " the 
strength" of bark, produced in the various regions 
of our country ; but am not much in error when 
I say the oak of the lower and warmer parts of the 
middle states contains fifty per cent, more tannin 
than that of the mountainous and colder regions 
of the same states. The oak bark of the state of 
Delaware, and that part of New-Jersey opposite 
Delaware, is believed to contain full one hundred 
per cent, more tannin than the oak bark of the 
Northern districts of the states of New-York and 
Massachusetts ; and, the oak bark, in the cold 
snowy»regions of the green mountains, is said to 
have no tannin whatever, and little ustringency. 
I am informed by tanners who reside in the North 
and Western parts of this state, that some of their 
oak bark is almost free from tannin ; and the oak 
of all our North-western states has far less tannin 



37 

than the Atlantic oak in the same latitudes. I 
have seen and sold a pack of leather, the tanning 
of which wfis attempted with heach bark, but so 
deficient in tannin is that bark, the tanner told me 
he was obliged to use strong hemlock liquors to 
save the hides from putrefaction. I believe the 
beach tree is rarely found, but in cold regions, in 
any abundance. The birch bark of the green 
mountains, and probably of all other Northern or 
very high mountains, yields little or no tannin, 
although it has been used and highly esteemed ; 
but being always mixed with hemlock or oak, or 
other bark, its defects were not discovered by 
those who used it. Some twenty-five or thirty 
years ago, a tanner of my acquaintance, in the 
region of the green mountains, desiring to make 
the experiment, used the birch alone, unmixed 
with any other, but presently found it had not 
sufficient tannin to prevent putrefaction. The 
hemlock bark is mainly used in all the Northern 
regions of this country ; but I am not aware of this 
tree being found, in any quantity, available for 
tanning purposes, in any latitude South of New- 
York city. It is observable, that in this country, 
wherever the hemlock forests terminate, in regions 
too warm for its production, there the oak forests 
commence. The oak is therefore used in the mid- 



38 

die states, and in the warmer parts of the Northern 
st.'itcs ; and the bay bark is chiefly used in the ex- 
treme Southern states — not because the oak is 
absent or deficient in tannin, in those states, but 
that the bay tree is much more easy to fell and 
peel, and its bark strongly impregnated with tan- 
nin, I think more so than oak. 

The cost of bark, in England, for tanning one 
pound of leather, is from six to eight cents. The 
cost of bark (oak) in this country, in the crude state, 
for tanning one pound of leather, is from three to 
four cents ; the cost of hemlock in the crude state, 
for tanning one pound of leather, does not exceed 
one and a half cents — probably one and a quarter 
cents may be the average cost for hemlock. 

I have already noted a difference of quality in 
the oak and hemlock tanned leather ; the former 
more soft and supple, the latter more hard and 
rigid. All sorts of upper leather, as well as sad- 
dle, bridle, harness, hose, belt, and band leather ; 
also, skins of all kinds, should be tanned with oak 
or sumach, as suppleness is an essential quality in 
the u^es and purposes to which these kinds of 
leather are put. The application of this theory 
of the dilferent qualities of the two kinds of barkf 
has established the opinion almost universally — 
and I think erroneousnesly — that oak tanned sole 



39 

leather is better, and must ever continue to be, 
better than hemlock; and the former has been, 
from my earliest remembrance until quite lately, 
valued and sold three to four cents a pound higher 
than the latter. This difference of price still 
exists as to the lighter kinds of leather, for the 
finer uses ; while, for all ordinary work, the heavy 
and common hemlock sole leather is now valued 
and sells about as high as the heavy and common 
oak. It would have cost a man his whole leather 
reputation, twenty years ago, to express the opinion 
against the sense of the world, that quite as good 
sole leather may be made with hemlock as with oak 
tannin, and at this date it may be hazardous. 1 
desire, therefore, to admit here, that the prejudice 
against hemlock tanned sole leather, formerly, 
was founded in truth ; the estimated difference in 
quality, thirty years ago, and the difference in the 
market value, of the two kinds, was real. Nearly 
all, or a large portion of the hemlock leather, up 
to 1820 or 1825, was miserably poor ; arising not 
from any defect in the quality of the tannin of that 
bark, but from the miserable, defective, and unskil- 
ful system of manufacturing, throughout the entire 
hemlock region. I have dweh longer on this 
point than it would seem to merit ; because the 
hemlock does, and must continue to supply nine- 



40 

tenths of the tanneries of this state ; and because 
this state is manufacturing largely for all the states 
of the union, and will doubtless continue so to do; 
and feeling confident that our modern improve- 
ments of the quality have made our leather quite 
as good as the average quality of that of the other 
states, and much better than some of them, I de- 
sire to remove, if possible, the remaining preju- 
dice which I find still existing in several of the 
states against it, especially from those states 
whose necessities require them to purchase large- 
ly from us, and to supply whom it is largely our 
interest. 

If hardness and solidity be a requisite quality 
for sole leather, as suppleness and flexibility are 
admitted to be for other kinds of leather, then it 
would seem that hemlock tannin should be the best 
for sole leather. I believe the best sole leather made 
in the world, during the eighteenth century, was in 
the large tanneries in Europe, near the river Rhine, 
and in England. The best made in this country 
was in the region of the Delaware river, and par- 
ticularly in Philadelphia, and by tanners either 
from Germany or England ; or by natives, who 
had learned the art from those, and were therefore 
skilful workmen ; whereas the tanners of our hem- 
lock districts, generally, have never understood 



41 

the art of tanning well with any bark, or any ma- 
terials, until within the present century. Hence, 
in my apprehension, has chiefly arisen the supe- 
rior credit of oak tanned sole leather over hem- 
lock ; but I must be permitted to say, however 
hazardous it may be, that most of the large tan- 
ners, in our hemlock woods, are now, at least as 
skilful and as perfect as any other tanners else- 
where ; and I believe much of their leather now in 
this market, is equal in solidity, imperviousness 
and durability, to any oak tanned sole leather, 
wherever it may have been tanned. 

Various attempts have been made in our inex- 
haustible hemlock woods, where bark is but two 
dollars a cord, to extract the tannin, to concentrate 
and diminish the bulk, so as to render the trans- 
portation convenient and cheap, to those older set- 
tled districts of our country where bark is six to 
ten dollars a cord ; also, for exportation to Europe, 
where bark is still much higher. The tannin thus 
extracted, has been used by many tanners, and 
found to answer as well as the bark in its crude 
state ; but, I apprehend, that so far as this country 
is concerned, the transportation of the hides to the 
hemlock districts,will be found to cost much less than 
the process of extraction, and transportation of the 
tannin to the hides. I should have no doubt of the 



42 

successful exportation of this extract, could we re- 
move the inveterate prejudice of the European 
tanners against the coloring matter, which hitherto 
we find inseparable from it. 

The time allotted me will not permit a detailed 
description of the improvements made within the 
last thirty years, in the construction of tanneries ;* 
the labor-saving machinery; the new forms, modes 
and uses of hydraulics and water-power, brought 
into general use, among the numerous tanneries in 
this state ; the application of steam and heat in 
other forms ; the new and speedy modes of extract- 
ing the tannin from the crude bark ; the newly in- 
vented instruments by which the strength of the 
solutions of tannin are accurately determined, &c. 
&c. But such is the extent of these improve- 
ments, that, whereas the tanner of thirty years 
ago could not afford his leather for less than six or 
eight cents a pound advance on the cost of the dry 
Spanish hides, the tanner of the present day can, 
and does afford, and does sell his leather, for an 
advimce of from three to four cents a pound on the 
cost cff such hides, (See table No. 1.) A large 
portion of this saving arises, doubtless, from the 

*'A full specification of the improvements connected Avith the 
tanning business, made during the last thirty years, might fill a 
volume. I cannot but hope that such a work may soon be com- 
piled and published. 



43 

enlargement of the tanneries; enabling the tanner 
to make that division of labor among the work- 
men, keeping each in the constant repetition or 
performance of a single branch, whereby he is 
enabled to perform fifty per cent, more, and fifty 
per cent, better work than he could do if he was 
changed daily or hourly, from branch to branch, 
which, in a small tannery, is necessarily the case. 
I apprehend that few persons in this country have 
an adequate idea of the incalculable saving of 
labor which may be accomplished, by dividing and 
subdividing each branch of work, and confining 
each operator to a single one of the minute subdi- 
visions. A very lucid description of this kind of 
economy, may be found in Adam Smith's inimita- 
ble work on the wealth of nations ; a book sur- 
passing all others in all matters of public or private 
economy; although it has some imperfections — or 
rather, the great changes since his time have render- 
ed some portionof it inapplicable to the presentday. 
The invention and application of these important 
improvements in tanning, originated chiefly with 
Colonel William Edwards, now of Greene county, 
in this state, formerly of New-Jersey, and subse- 
quently of Massachusetts, and not unlike most 
other cases of great projecters and mental la- 
borers of the human race, the benefits or profits 



44 

arising from these vast improvements of Mr. Ed- 
wards's are to the nation as milUons, but to his 
own coficrs, comparatively as units. I think I am 
not extravagant in rating the benefits of his im- 
provements at milUons ; they have spread, and 
have been adopted, in some sort or measure, in all 
the states where leather is manufactured in any 
great extent ; but the state of New- York, in which, 
by the aid of several capitalists of this city, these 
improvements, with the invcnter, were planted and 
established, in 181G-17, has availed itself most 
largely of them ; and now, besides for its own con- 
sumption, manufactures for all the other states 
probably one-third, may be two-fifths of all the 
sole leather they use. 1 compute the total quan- 
tity of leather, from bullock's hides, annually man- 
ufactured in our state, at twenty millions of pounds, 
and the leather manufactured annually in all the 
other twenty-five states, at thirty-five millions of 
pounds. 

Of the history of tanning, in times gone by, I 
have little to say ; the mere historical record is not 
materially useful, but to amuse the speculative and 
the curious. As to our own country, I beheve the 
manufacture of leather was almost coeval with its 
settlement by our European ancestors, but not in 
sufficient quantities, 'even of the most necessary 



15 

and common kinds, for our own wants, until some 
thirty years last past. Within my memory, our 
annual importations of all kinds of leather have 
been very considerable ; but the importation fifteen 
years ago had nearly ceased as to the more useful 
heavy leather, and is now chiefly confined to skins ; 
among which are the large sheepskins of England, 
for which we have no adequate substitute in Ame- 
rica. Our merino and saxon mixture of the sheep, 
for the improvement of the wool, has so diminish- 
ed the size of that animal, that the skin is disquali- 
fied for many of its former uses. We continue, 
also, the importation of French calfskins largely, 
while we have, in my judgment, a superabundance 
of our own. Also, the book-binder's leather from 
Russia, which is said to defy the moth, from the 
essence, or odor, or taste, of the material used in 
tanning. I have no doubt we shall soon make this 
kind of leather in this country. I am told we have 
the same tanning material which is used in Russia, 
in abundance, in the forests of Vermont, Maine, 
and New-Hampshire. 

The countries to which wo chiefly export lea- 
ther, are the Western Isles, the Mediterranean, 
Africa, the West Indies, South America, and large- 
ly to the Canadas. A large proportion of these 
exports is in the form of boots, shoes, saddles, 



46 

harness, &;c. &c. ; a moderate amount only going 
in its original form of leather. I find I have been 
mistaken greatly, heretofore, as to the extent of 
our exports of these commodities. I had supposed 
the value of our exports of leather, and articles 
made of leather, were many fold greater than I 
find it.* On this subject I have spent much time 
and pains, in examining official documents, chiefly 
the annual reports of the secretaries of the fede- 
ral treasury, on commerce and navigation ; and 
have compiled the several appended tables from 
them, (Numbers 2 and 3,) the results of which ex- 
hibit an importation, of both hides and leather, so 
much larger, and an exportation of both so much 
smaller than I had anticipated, that I have spared 
no pains to find some error in my work, but 1 find 
none, and am constrained to come to the very un- 
welcome conclusions, that, from the year 1827 to 
1836 inclusive, (the official returns for 1837 not 

* It is generally known, that it has been a ruling point of policy, 
of most, or all of the nations of Europe, to protect their domestic 
manufactures from the competition of others, by a very high tariff 
of duties and in many cases, a total prohibition of foreign manufac. 
tures. Such was the law of Great Britain for a long period, as to 
leather. Subsequently it was admitted entry on paying a duty of 
one shilling sterling per pound ; something more than the prime cost 
of the article in this country. Latterly, I believe, the duty has been 
considerably reduced. But for these high rates of duty, the tanners 
of the United States, with tjieir greatly superior means of manu- 
facture, would inundate Europe in a few years. 



47 

being yet made out,) our importations of raw hides 
and skins, have increased from 1 ,480,349 dollars, 
in 1827, to 3,51 1,463 dollars in 1836; while our 
exportations, during the same term, have diminish- 
ed from 481,564 dollars to 459,801 dollars. I find 
a similar, unlooked-for and unwelcome result, in 
our exports and imports of leather, and articles 
manufactured from leather. It appears by the 
same official reports, for the same periods, that 
our importations have increased from 450,283 
dollars, to 1,111,783 dollars, while our exports 
have decreased from 588,405 dollars to 224,832 
dollars. I have said that this view of our foreign 
trade, in hides and leather, is an unw^elcome view 
to me. It exhibits an annual balance against this 
nation, with all the world, in these articles alone, 
of 3,938,613 dollars, which must be paid in cash 
or some other commodity : and when we consider 
that we are largely a grazing and cattle-growing 
nation, manufacturing from our native hides a 
greater quantity of leather than any other nation 
of equal population, the foregoing view of ex- 
ports and imports would seem to indicate an 
extravagant, if not a wasteful use of leather. It 
should furnish no special gratification, although it 
may form an apology for this apparent over-trad- 
ing in hides and leather, that our aggregate na- 
tional imports and exports, of all commodities, 



48 

during the same periods, exhibits an approximate 
disproportional increase of the former over the 
latter, as may be seen by the appended table, 
(number 1.) This disproportion of imports to 
exports, for the state of New-York, is still greater, 
(as may be seen by table number 5.) We are in- 
formed by Adam Smith, who has delineated every 
point and line of every branch of political econo- 
ni}^ ; and who has, 1 think, collected and com- 
pressed into three volumes, more of the critical 
history of the individual, as well as the general 
economy of human society, than any one author, 
and with less of error and mistake than most au- 
thors ; I say, we are informed by this great phi- 
losopher, that it is characteristic with savage natiotis 
to export their raw hides, and neither to manufacture 
nor use much leather ; while civilized nations import 
largely of raw hides, and manufacture and consume 
large quantities of leather. It is a fair corollary, 
then, that our excessive consumption of leather 
indicates our superior degree of civilization ; and 
such is undoubtedly the truth. The high grade of 
civilization of the people of the United States, is 
abundantly evident and universally acknowledged. 
But! wander from my purpose. 

As respects the quantity of leather annually 
consumed by the people of the United States, I 
find it exceedingly difficult to make a satisfactory 



49 

estimate, and quite impossible to attain to any 
thing like accuracy. Our official data are so few, 
and these few annually so disqualified by our rapid 
and ceaseless action, and increasing domestic 
production and foreign trade, that all our ascertain- 
ed and recorded statistical facts of one year, are 
falsified by the augmented productions of the next. 
The irrepressible enterprize of the people of this 
nation, actually mocks, flouts, and throws into 
utter uselessness for present purposes and calcu- 
lations, the records of the diminutive production 
and consumption of the past. 

The statistical data of the domestic productions 
of other countries are chiefly collected from their 
excise departments. But happily for us, we are 
free from the odious surveilance of our actions and 
private business concerns, which furnishes in Eu- 
rope the annual, the semi-annual, and the quarterly 
means of recording the precise number of pounds 
of leather produced by each tanner. We have no 
exciseman's watch-box in our tanneries ; we are 
not bound, cap in hand, to give him a schedule of 
every side, every skin we put in, and notice of 
the very hour we desire to take out each side and 
each skin, that he may weigh and stamp the king's 
tax of three pence sterling upon each pound of the 

produce of our labor ; and we can well spare the 

7 



50 

statistical knowledge, "svliich must be obtained at 
so great a cost to our freedom.* I have therefore 
resorted to the only means we do possess, in my 
estimates of the consumption of leather in this 
country, which are in fact little better than guess- 
ing. t I have computed our annual consumption 

* Since writing- the foregoing^, I fir)d that in England the excise 
duty in 1812 was raised from one and a half to three pence ; in 1822, 
reduced to one penny and a half; and totally discontinued in 1830. 

t Estimate oj Leather consumed in the United States annually. 
I assume that our population is about 15,000,000, equal to 3,000,000 
families of five members each, and that there are annually slaugh- 
tered five bullocks to every six families ; that the average weight 
of the hides is fifty-five pounds, yielding,"when tanned, twetity-two 
pounds of leather, making- an aggregate of 55,000,000 pounds of 
leather, which I value at twenty cents per pound, is $11,000,000. 
Our importation of foreign hides and skins exceeds the exports about 
83,000,000. {See table No. 3.) I estimate §750,000 of this sum to 
be in goat, seal, sheep skins, &c., and the residue, §2,250,000 to be 
in hides, which, by the best data within my power, (assuming the 
cost abroad at §1 60 per hide,) would give us 1,406,250 hides, ave- 
raging, when tanned, twenty-five pounds of leather each, making 
an aggregate of 35,156.250 pounds leather, which I value at twenty 
cents per pound, is §7,031,250 

I assume, the value of the light leather, made from foreign and do- 
mestic skins, annually consumed, in the United States, as follows : 



Hog, 


50,000 skins, 


at 


§2 50 each. 


is Si 25,000 


Calf, 


1,500,000 " 




2 00 " 


3,000,000 


Goat, 


1,500,000 " 




75 " 


1,125,000 


Sheep, 


4,500,000 " 




33i " 


1,500,000 


Seal, ^ 


50,000 " 




2 00 " 


100,000 


Deer, 


500,000 " 




1 00 " 


500,000 



§6,350,000 

Add leather made of foreign hides, 7,031,250 

Do. do. domestic do. 11,000,000 

§24,381,250 
Add the excess of imported "leather, and manufactures 

of leather over our exports, 886,091 

§25,267,341 



51 

of all kinds of leather at the prime cost of about 
twenty-five millions of dollars, which falls so much 
short of the estimates which have been made by 
others, that I should the more distrust my own 
calculations, but for the analagous support I find 
in the consumption of other countries, and particu- 
larly of Great Britain. 

It appears from a late edition of M'CulIoch's 
Dictionary of Commerce, than whom no modern 
author is deemed more authentic, that the total 
manufacture of all kinds of leather in Great Britain 
is 50,000,000 pounds, which he values at one shil- 
ling and eight pence sterling per pound, making 
£4,160,000 or $18,470,000. And he values the 
articles manufactured from leather at three times 
the cost of the leather, making say £12,500,000 
or $55,500,000. He estimates the value of shoes 
for each individual in Great Britain, at eight shillings 
and six pence sterling, which for 16,000,000 people 
gives £6,800,000 or 1^30,192,000, and £5,700,000 
or $25,308,000 for saddlery, &c. making a total 
value of $56,500,000, (excluding Scotland and Ire- 
land.) 

I am as little able to make an accurate estimate 
of the annual consumption, or the value of all the 
articles made from leather, in this countr}'^, as of 
the leather itself. The sum is certainly very great. 



52 

The additional labor on a portion of the commodi- 
ties made from leather, would not be great, such 
as coarse shoes, coarse harness, the bands on the 
wheels of rail-road cars, the great machine bands 
in our large factories, &ic. ; but on many articles, 
of which leather is the entire, or in part the com- 
ponent material, the cost of labor is many fold 
the primary cost of the leather ; I may name la- 
dies' and gentlemen's dress shoes and boots, fine 
harness, and elegant furniture and carriage work. 

It will be seen that M'Culloch makes the total 
value of the articles manufactured from leather in 
Great Britain, to be about threefold greater than 
the leather itself. His ratio is not strictly applica- 
ble in this country, as our leather costs less, and 
our labor in making up, much more than in Great 
Britain. If we should adopt his basis, and make 
the proper allowance for these differences, it 
would swell the cost of consumption for this coun- 
try, of all the articles manufactured from leather, 
to the annual sum of eighty or eighty-five millions 
of dollars.* 

I have intimated that statistical exhibitions may 
be made beneficial to the manufacturer, as well as 



* From a statistical table published in Massachusetts, by the sec- 
retary of state, it appears, that the boots and shoes annually manu- 
factured in that state alone amounted to$14,642,52ft. 



53 

to the merchant, the banker, or the legislator ; 
thus, if my data be correct, that the cost of oak 
bark, for tanning one pound of leather, be two, or 
two and a half cents more than the cost of hem- 
lock ; and if the sole leather tanned with the lat- 
ter be quite as good, with equal workmanship, as 
that tanned with the former ; then, the young 
manufacturer, who proposes to manufacture sole 
leather only, or chiefly, should locate his tannery 
in or near the hemlock forests ; so, he who pro- 
poses to tan those kinds of leather only or chiefly, 
which require the peculiar qualities which oak 
bark gives, should locate in the vicinity of oak 
forests. 

Again, when our authentic statistical data show 
us satisfactorily, that the annual increase of our 
imported hides is thirteen per cent., our increase of 
imported leather fourteen per cent., and the increase 
of manufactured leather for any one great district 
is twenty-three per cent., while our exports are 
decreasing^ as the appended tables number I to 6 
would seem to indicate ; and while the annual 
increase of our population scarcely equals five per 
cent., we should be admonished that something is 
wrong somewhere, and we should ascertain whe- 
ther the real want and means of the consumers 
are proportionably augmented ; whether the legiti- 



54 

male demand keeps pace with this augmented 
supply. A mere speculative demand shoukl not 
satisfy the manufacturer. An unnatural or spurious 
demand may arise from causes, not apparent at the 
time, and be mistaken by the manufacturer, whose 
mind is fully employed in his factory, for the 
legitimate demand for actual consumption. We 
should therefore watch carefully and suspicious- 
ly, any rapid or unusual increase in produc- 
tion ; and nothing so well as frequent and exten- 
sive statistical views will enable us to do so. One 
of the most fruitful and most delusive among the 
causes of an unreal and unnatural demand for in- 
creased production of commodities, is an increase 
of money beyond the ordinary measure ! I feel 
that I am approaching dangerous ground ; the 
subject of currency having been made, most un- 
fortunately, and I think most unwisely, the chief 
basis of party politics ; one can scarcely speak of 
it latterly, without giving offence to more or less 
of his hearers. I desire to offend none ; I make 
no party political allusions here ; my sole purpose, 
in these discourses, as I have before said, is to give 
my feeble aid in support of the branch of busi- 
ness, in which my life has been spent, and in the 
continued prosperity of which, my feelings and 
my pride are deeply and immoveably seated -, but 



55 

I should leave my purpose unfinished, if I omit 
altogether a point bearing so materially on the 
manufacturer as that of money — that powerful 
lever in raising or lowering the market value of all 
things. 

I think it would be very easy to demonstrate 
that the quantity of money (the measure of price) 
extant, may have quite as much influence on the 
price of our raw material, or on the price of our 
manufactured leather, and so of all commodities, 
as the quantity of such commodities in market has 
on the price, (See'table number? and the appended 
note.) 1 am aware of the maxim, that '^ the ratio of 
supply to the demand of any commodity must rule 
the price." This, however, is only true while the 
quantity of money (the legitimate measure of 
price) is unvarying. But on the least variation of 
the quantity of money or currency, whatever may 
be its quality, the quoted maxim must give way. 
Thus, if we should double our manufacture of 
leather, while the quantity of medium of value 
remains unaltered, the price of our leather would 
fall greatly, probably nearly one-half ; on the con- 
trary, should we diminish our usual manufacture 
one-half, the supply of money remaining as usual, 
the price of our leather would nearly double. 

Again, should the supply of both be doubled, 
the price of leather would remain unaltered ; and 



56 

so if both should bo diminished one-half, the price 
of the leiather would remain about the same as be- 
fore. It is quite obvious then, that the profit and 
loss account of the manufacturer, requires him to 
watch no less carefully the variations of the quan- 
tity of money than the quantity of the raw mate- 
rial, and the quantity of manufactured leather at 
market ; and more especially in a trade like ours, 
which requires a year or more for each stock. 

I believe it is now generally apprehended, that 
the enterprizing spirit of our city, and of our trade 
in common with other branches, has urged us into 
an excess both imprudent and unprofitable. My- 
self have been of this opinion heretofore, and feel 
the extreme delicacy of my situation in the discus- 
sion of this point. It is well known that I have 
expressed this opinion freely since 1830-31, as 
well in my business correspondence as colloquial- 
ly, and almost daily, but I desire on this occasion 
to withhold my own judgment, and show you the 
records of inspections of leather, imports of hides, 
Acc. for ten years past, desiring each individual 
concerned, to make up his own mind, whether we 
have done too much or too little. (See tables ap- 
pended.) Should we, on a full and fair examina- 
tion of these data, embracing also several items 
which I have omitted, such as stock of leather in 
our warehouses and tanneries, as well as the stock 



57 

of made-up work, so far as we can ascertain it 
throughout the nation ; should we, I say, come to 
the conclusion that our trade is somewhat over- 
done, we shall find ample apologies to mingle with 
our regrets, should any arise ; and first, the supe- 
rior facilities which this state presents for manu- 
facturing leather, furnish powerful inducements to 
extensive operations even in the most moderate 
and inactive business periods ; but during the last 
seven years, while the spirit of all trades, all em- 
ployments, became utterly irrepressible, our trade 
alone could hardly be expected to move in the rear 
of others. The revulsion, too, is without a paral- 
lel, it has been more sudden and more extreme 
than any nation has felt since 1722. We have 
moreover the substantial consolation, that the 
sudden and great diminution of consumption of 
leather, consequent on the revulsion, cannot last 
long, for whatever the people may be compelled to 
dispense with of luxuries or comforts, through their 
diminished means and deranged employments, they 
cannot dispense with the use of an article of such 
absolute necessity as sole leather, nor can they 
much diminish the quantity ordinarily consumed ; 
so that if our stocks in store, and in the tanneries, 
be not overswollen, and especially if Ave suitably 
diminish our manufacture durinjr the present year, 

8 ' 



58 

our trade will ultimately return to a sound and 
healthful state. 

Again, I say, if from our data and reasoning 
we should come to the conclusion that we have 
enlarged our stocks of leather beyond the legiti- 
mate wants of the nation ; if we should ascribe 
such excess to the indiscreet erection or enlarge- 
ment of the capacity of our tanneries for several 
years past, or to the enlargement of that potent 
and all-pervading instrument of trade, our circu- 
lating medium, let us adopt the best remedies with- 
in our power, let us act like reasonable men, let 
us not fly into the opposite extremes, let us not 
resort to remedies worse than the disease : It 
would be hardly creditable to this enlightened na- 
tion to demolish its institutions because they have 
done too much. It would be hardly creditable to 
the discretion and good sense of a tanner, to tear 
down or destroy his whole tannery, because, inad- 
vertently, or even from inordinate love of gain, he 
has made it too large ; let us not abjure our trade, 
and all go bare-foot, because we have overdone it. 
Such a course would render us more ridiculous in 
the eyes of the community, than the gormandizer 
who abjured roast beef for ever, because, for once, 
his gluttony got the better of his discretion. 



TABLES. 



I. 



Showing the average nett value, or price, per pound, of 
Hemlock Sole Leather, sold by G. Lee & Co. during the 
follovt^ing years, exclusive of commissions and charges : 

1827, 17^ cents per pound. 

1828, 18^ " 

1829, 18i " 

1830, 18^ " 

1831, 19^ « 

1832, 17^ " 

1833, 15| " 

1834, 13| " 

1835, 14| " 

1836, 174 « 

1837, 16 " 

'Note. The average price for the whole eleven years, is about 
seventeen cents ; for the last six years, fifteen and five-sixths cents. 
It may be well to note also, that the statutes of this state, regulating 
the inspection and sale of sole leather, require the inspector care- 
fully to examine, and weigh, and stamp on each side, the weight 
and grade of quality, such as best, good, daviaged, had; and the 
penalties are severe for any violation of the statutes. The price of 
the several grades, composing each invpice, varies from six to twenty 
cents a pound. Kach of the items of the foregoing table, embraces 
leather of every price, from six to twenty cents or more. 



60 



LEATHER. 

II. 

Showing the Value of all kinds of Leather, and of all kinds 
of articles manufactured from leather, imported into and 
exported from the United States, during the years 1827 
to 1836, inclusive, closing each year on the 30th Sep- 
tember. Compiled from the Secretary of the Treasury's 
Annual Reports of the Commerce and Navigation of the 
United States. 

EXPORTS. 

$.')88,405 
542,206 
490,830 
456,304 
398,336 
363,696 
301,095 
239,850 
313,346 
224,832 





liNLfuurs. 


1827, 


$450,283 


1828, 


496,970 


1829, 


549,113 


1830, 


506,298 


1831, 


826,073 


1832, 


670,016 


1833, 


860,795 


1834, 


688,600 


1885, 


1,017,367 


1836, 


1,111,783 



61 



HIDES. 
III. 



Showing the value of raw Hides and Skins imported into 
and exported from the United States during the years 
1827 to 1836 inclusive, closing each year on 30th Sep- 
tember. Compiled from the Secretary of the Treasury's 
Annual Reports of the Commerce and Navigation of the 
United States. 





I3IPORTS. 


1827, 


#1,480,349 


1828, 


1,804,203 


1829, 


2,252,609 


1830, 


2.409,850 


1831, 


3,057,543 


1832, 


4,680,128 


1833, 


3,588,819 


1834, 


3,296,688 


1835, 


3,369,888 


1836, 


3,511,463 



EXPORTS. 

M81,564 
432,667 
527,294 
510,658 
326,767 
920,746 
805,129 
1,644,965 
191,074 
459,801 



(\2 



COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

IV. 

Showing the value of the total imports and exports, into 
and from the United States, during the years 1827 to 
1836, inclusive, closing each year on 30th September. 
Compiled from the Secretary of the Treasury's Annual 
Reports of the Commerce and Navigation of the United 
Slates. 





IMPORTS. 


EXPOUTS. 


1827, 


$79,484,068 


882,324,827 


1828, 


88,509,824 


72,264,686 


1829, 


74,492,527 


72,358,671 


1830, 


70,876,920 


73,849,508 


1831, 


103,191,124 


81,310,583 


1832, 


101,029,266 


87,176,943 


1833, 


108,118,311 


90,140,433 


1834, 


126,521,332 


104,346,973 


1835, 


149,895,742 


121,693,577 


1836, 


189,980,035 


128,663,040 



t)3 



COMMERCE OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK. 

V. 

Showing the value of the total imports and exports, into 
and from this state, during the years 1827 to 1836, inclu- 
sive, closing each year on the 30th September. Taken 
from the Secretary of the Treasury's Annual Reports of 
the Commerce and Navigation of the United States. 

EXPORTS. 

$23,834,137 
22,777,649 
20,119,011 
19,697,983 
25,535,144 
26,000,945 
25,395,117 
25,512,014 
30,345,264 
28,920,638 





IMPORTS. 


1827, 


$38,719,644 


1828, 


41,927,792 


1829, 


34,743,307 


1830, 


35,624,070 


1831, 


57,077,417 


1832, 


53,214,402 


1833, 


55,918,449 


1834, 


73,188,594 


1835, 


88,11)1,305 


1836, 


118,253,416 



64 



SOLE LEATHER INSPECTED IN NEW- YORK. 

VL 

Showing the total number of sides of Sole Leather inspect- 
ed in the city of New- York, during the years 1827 to 
1837, inclusive. 

1827, 265,553 sides. 

1828, 284,978 *' 

1829, 264,878 " 

1830, 326,298 " 

1831, 440,000 " 

1832, 667,000 " 

1833, 882,609 " 

1834, 828,175 " 

1835, 784,165 « 

1836, 925,014 " 

1837, 890,962 " 



6d 



UEAL AND PERSONAL ESTATE OF THE CITY 
OF NEW- YORK. 

VII. 

The Assessed Official Value- 

REAL. PERSONAL. TOTAL. 

1827, $72,617,770 $39,594,156 $112,211,926 

1828, 77,139,880 36,879,653 114,019,533 

1829, 76,834,880 35,691,136 112,526,016 

1830, 87,603,580 37,684,938 125,288,518 

1831, 97,221,870 42,058,344 139,280,214 

1832, 104,042,405 42,260,213 146,302,618 

1833, 114,124,566 52,366,976 166,491,542 

1834, 123,249,280 63,299,231 186,548,511 

1835, 143,732,425 74,991,278 218,723,703 

1836, 233,742,303 75,758,617 309,500,920 

1837, 196,450,109 67,297,241 263,747,350 



Note. It can scarcely be possible that the city has actually add- 
ed to its present wealth, $151,535,424 within eleven years, over and 
above its annual expenditures, which, at one hundred dollars for 
each individual would amount to $22,500,000 for one year, or 
$247,500,000 during ten of the eleven years of the table. To what 
cause then can we ascribe this apparent increase, but to an inordi- 
nate enlargement of the measure of value ? And to what cause can 
we ascribe the fall of nearly fifty millions the last year, but to the 
diminution of that measure ? 

9 



G6 



HIDES— NEW-YORK. 

VIII. 

Showing the number of Hides imported into and exported 
from the port of New- York, during the years 1827 to 
1837 inclusive, closing each year on 31st December. 
Taken from Shipping and Commercial Lists and Cus- 
toms. 





IMPORTS. 




EXPORTS. 




1827, 


259,975 hides. 


41,545 hides, 


1828, 


268,744 


<( 


48,369 


(( 


1829, 


308,987 


<( 


52,023 


<( 


1830, 


475,640 


(1 


26,305 


<< 


1831, 


772,299 


« 


8,017 


(t 


1832, 


975,094 


<( 


169,493 


<• 


1833, 


892,198 


>i 


58,282 


(( 


1834. 


700,052 


« 


169,856 


it 


1835, 


868,381 


(( 


21,903 


« 


1836, 


942,890 


(i 


109,273 


<t 


1837, 


623,925 


it 


99,356 


it 



(>7 



IIDES-LIVERPOOL. 
IX. 





IMPORTS. 


1827, 


186,127 hides, 


1828, 


290,512 " 


1829, 


542,411 " 


1830, 


514,260 " 


1831, 


564,859 " 


1832, 


351,897 " 


1833, 


692,419 " 


1834, 


626,189 " 


1835, 


682,141 " 


1836, 


479,107 " 


1837,* 


477,820 " 



EXPORTS. 

29,001 hides. 

30,880 " 

128.449 " 
170,604 " 
138,220 " 

111.450 " 
62,000 " 

213,855 '' 

337,444 " 

198,277 « 

166.930 " 



Note. This table is compiled from the printed commercial circu- 
lars of Liverpool houses, and is inserted here merely to show the 
comparison of that city and this, in the trade of foreign hides. 
Liverpool far exceeds any other city in the world in the hide trade, 
except the city of New-York. I regret that there will still be this 
imperfection in the comparison, that this table embraces horsehides 
as well as bullocks, the last five years only, whereas the table for 
New- York embraces them for the whole time. 



Ten months only. 



1 Mercein & Post's Press. | 



